Most people, I imagine, have heard of the Tomatina Festival (pictured) that occurs in the Spanish town of Bunol on the last Wednesday of every August and regularly attracts crowds in excess of 30,000.
It dates back to an event in 1945 when a giant brawl occured during a festival where giant papier mache figures are paraded through town and people started grabbing ripe tomatoes from nearby food stands and hucking them at each other.
We Reginans are a hardy lot. So what I propose we do is start a Tomatina Festival of our own — with one twist. It’ll be held every autumn when the first killing frost is forecast and people rush out to their gardens to salvage all the green tomatoes still ripening on the vine. Then to celebrate the end of summer, we’ll gather at the new downtown City Plaza and chuck a portion of our bounty at each other.
With the media attention we’ll attract, it’ll put us on the map internationally. Plus, it’ll put the plaza to use. What do you think?
